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The high seismic vulnerability of the Italian territory and its ancient building heritage require attention regarding planning interventions on existing buildings. In fact, they show both structural and technological design deficiencies mainly due to the period of construction, the lack of design to withstand horizontal forces and the type of material used, which is mainly masonry and reinforced concrete. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to intervene with solutions of seismic improvement or adjustment also concerning the economic point of view. This work suggests an advanced approach to address the problem employing the innovative concept of an external self-supporting steel system: the exoskeleton technology. It has been applied to guarantee the seismic adjustment of an existing structure that aims at reaching higher safety targets as well as new aesthetic and sustainable features. Due to the overcoming of lifespan limit of 50 years, the explored residential construction no longer complies with the current technical standards; the issue has been solved connecting the two structures by a non-dissipative rigid link to create a coupled system whose floors show an in-plane rigid behaviour while maintaining separated their response to seismic actions. Initial explanations of the internal and the outer constructions advance the dynamic analysis, which allows to highlight the main seismic properties of the whole model such as frequencies and periods of vibration, floor displacements and shear forces. Following outcomes do not just focus on how the exoskeleton can take base and floor shear forces but also the way it manages to strongly reduce displacements and deformations of the primary building, so that it can bear earthquake actions preventing not only collapse but also reducing non-structural elements damage.
Martelli et al. (Wed,) studied this question.